In its first tournament of the spring season, the Stanford men’s golf team took third place at the Amer Ari Invitational on the strength of freshman Patrick Rodgers’ third-place finish and junior Andrew Yun’s final round 65.
Heading into the final round of the tournament, held at the Kings’ Course on Hawaii’s Big Island, Stanford was nine-under and tied for fifth, but the team posted an 11-under 277 on the last day to vault into third place and finish at -20. Yun’s seven-under 65 was tied for the lowest round of the tournament. No. 1 Texas, which won the tournament by 10 shots, and No. 4 USC were the only schools to finish ahead of the Cardinal.
“We got off to not the greatest start, but to come back and finish the way we did with such a good field is very promising, a good way to start the winter season, so that’s always nice,” said senior captain Wilson Bowen. “I think we were the low team if you look at the last two days, so just not quite the best start.”
A few days after the tournament, the Golf Coaches Association of America honored both Yun and Rodgers by placing them on the 28-player Ben Hogan Award watch list. The Hogan Award, given annually to the best men’s collegiate golfer, is awarded at the end of the spring season.
Entering this week’s San Diego Intercollegiate, the Cardinal was ranked No. 5 in the nation by Golfweek, but the team stumbled in its opening round at the San Diego Country Club, shooting a team score of +19 on Monday. This time, the Cardinal was unable to recover from its slow start and finished eighth, 32 shots behind tournament-winner No. 11 Washington.
Rodgers, currently the nation’s No. 3 college golfer, led the team with an individual score of six-over and finished 17th. It was his first finish outside the top 10 in six college tournaments. Junior Steven Kearney, a native of San Diego, called the course “extremely difficult.”
“So far this season it seems that we always manage to have three guys play really well, but our fourth and fifth man struggle to post low scores,” Kearney said. “In a game where you must count four out of five total scores, we need to have everyone play well on the same day. That is how you win golf tournaments as a team. We are only as strong as our fifth man.”
The team now has a two-week break before traveling to Las Vegas for the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters, which starts March 9. Bowen said the event, which the Cardinal does not usually play, attracts a strong field every year. Following the Las Vegas tournament, the Cardinal plays two more tournaments before competing in the Pac-12 Championship and NCAA Regionals.
Despite the team’s disappointing finish in San Diego, Kearney believes the Cardinal can win the national championship.
“There is no doubt in my mind that we are the best team in the country,” Kearney said. “Many guys on the team have had very glorified junior careers, and we all know how to win. We won our first tournament of the season by 16 shots, which is almost unheard of in college golf.”
He pointed out the strengths of teammates like Rodgers and Yun, who he said “play consistently well every tournament,” and the elite tournament experience of the team’s starting lineup as evidence of the squad’s potential.
“If we can all put together the round that we are capable of, there is no team that can beat us,” Kearney added. “It’s only a matter of time before it happens, and I have a feeling it is going to be very soon.”
Despite the recent setback, he defended his team’s chances come May, particularly against those who doubt Stanford’s ability to perform in high-pressure situations.
“The way I see it, we are the underdog right now,” he said. “We haven’t played our best yet this season, and the media questions our ability to play well under pressure after not making it through Regionals last year in Indiana. I have seen every guy on this team shoot in the mid-60s on difficult courses, so there is no doubt that we can pull it off.”
“But most of all,” he added, “nothing would be better than beating [No. 3] UCLA and USC on their home track to bring home an NCAA Championship.”